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Scrapbooking: Alternatives to Adhesives

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Awhile back, Nicole blogged about the different types of adhesives you can use on your scrapbooks. If you haven’t read that, do! It’s a very good introduction and covers it well. I’ll admit to being cheap sometimes and using scrapbook glue sticks when I can’t afford the tape runner. But sometimes you have articles, photos, documents, or memorabilia that you don’t want permanently affixed for one reason or another. What do you do then?

One way is to use photo corners. You stick your photo into it, and then glue the corners down. This means you can always remove the photo. The corners will stay in place. This works well if you have straight corners, but the look is just not me. I have used it in heritage albums, and it’s good for that. They just don’t thrill me for my current books, though.

Pocket pages are a good thing when the item needs to be kept, but not necessarily displayed. What about items that you want to see, but don’t want to alter in any way?

In doing my husband’s Navy album, I wanted his cards displayed, but he was adamant that nothing mar them. I decided to use vellum pocket pages. They’re clear, so the items are displayed. Only the pocket is adhered to the page. The cards are just slipped in. The look was too plain for me with just the displayed cards, so I covered them in actual fishnet secured with pewter squares. The vellum is barely noticeable, but it’s there, protecting his Magellan and Meridian cards from fingerprints and curious onlookers.

For the facing page, his Order of Neptune proclamation was too large for a vellum pocket. I wanted it to show and be able to be read. Again, he wouldn’t let me put any adhesive on it, even when I showed him how the glue dots worked. In the end, I secured it with two woven sisal strands held in place by gold stars. Adhesive-free!

It took me awhile to figure out what to do, but in the end, we were both happy!

What creative ways have you found to secure memorabilia without adhesive?